Matcha Outlet

Many thanks to VariaTEA for providing me with a sample of French Butter Cookie. The matcha itself smells like a smooth vanilla, more bakery-like than their French Vanilla.

I just prepared a matcha latte with 3/4 tsp matcha, some brown sugar, and 1% milk. The flavour of the matcha is definitely a more buttery version of French Vanilla. It’s also more delicate, but perhaps because I’m used to the robust-level French Vanilla I’ve been indulging in, and this may be distinctive or delicate? It definitely has a more bakery quality to it. I wish I didn’t put as much brown sugar as I did (plus I ought to start measuring instead of pouring out of the bag) so that I could truly judge the matcha itself. Next time, I won’t use any sugar at all, which is what I usually do with the French Vanilla, anyway.

Sipdown, but I’ll restock this again. Nice and fruity, strong smell but a more sedate taste.

2.5 chasaku scoops dissolved in 175F water, added 8oz light soy milk heated in my Breville milk frother. I’m really liking the plain soy milk, and it’s about half the calories of rice milk so that means I can have double the lattes…theoretically anyway.

Smells very figgy, thankfully doesn’t taste quite as figgy as it smells since it’s VERY figgy smelling. Tastes great; sweet, creamy, figgy, and has the matcha taste at the end of the sip to round it out.

8oz of almond milk with two chasaku scoops of sifted matcha (I finally measured about how much I’m getting with the chasaku and it’s around 3/4 tsp for two of my scoops). Frothed with a hand frother though I’m seriously beginning to consider an electric heater/frother after I burned three batches of milk over the weekend.

This smells very sweet and fruity—almost cloyingly so but not quite to the gross out level. It tastes like a creamier, toned down version of its scent which is nice to drink. This is a matcha where I taste mostly just the flavor instead of mostly the flavor of the milk I’m drinking with the matcha more of a second note. I think this is one I’ll eventually try as an iced latte. I’m not getting any bitterness or much of a vegetal spin at the end of the sip like I have with some of the other flavored ones.

As the cup cools to warm instead of hot-warm the vegetal/mathca flavor is more pronounced but never overwhelms the fruity fig taste.

Royal grade matcha, distinctive flavoring.

The smell is amazing! Rich, sweet cheesecakey smell. The flavor is extremely buttery and very tasty, but didn’t taste like cheesecake very much. Nice green color and not bitter. Would be interesting to try it with a higher flavoring level.

Sipdown (124)!

Finished this one off at work, in cold water though instead of my normal milk. When you’re drinking tea in the staff room you work with what you’ve got – and if I left milk in the fridge for matcha there’s no way in hell it’d still be there when I went to use it. It’s a sad truth.

Despite just being boring ice water, this tasted just fine albeit the mouthfeel was so much thinner than I’ve become accustomed to when it comes to drinking matcha. Pretty much just sweet chocolate/coffee goodness though. Sadly, I can’t remember who the sample is from anymore, but thank you to whoever sent it! Revisiting this matcha was fun.

This is a queued tasting note.

Cold shaken in milk. I thought I was generous enough with the amount of matcha used but this tasted quite weak to me. I remember thinking that my first tasting of this sample from TeaNTees was rather mild too, so I’m really wondering if the flavour level is different from what I normally go for or if the matcha is just showing its age or some other third possibility.

Regardless, it was fine I suppose but not exceptional. Actually, it was kind of like a watered down Starbucks Frappucino bottle drinks. I mean, those are pretty sweet anyway so a less concentrated version isn’t a bad thing – but not really ‘my jam’ either. To be honest, coffee/mocha anything isn’t really my thing though.

This sample comes on behalf of TeaNTees who sent me a few tea samples and a super adorable Spiderman shirt in the mail! I picked her package up from my old apartment on Saturday, and I think that officially marks the last of my mail that’ll get sent there? Fingers crossed, anyway.

I’ve actually tried this matcha before – but it’s one I really liked so I was happy to see it included. It’s like revisiting an old friend, no? I thought it’d be the perfect tea to start the day off with yesterday so I whisked up a mug of it in some milk to drink while I cooked myself breakfast. Hashbrowns and Smoky Maple (Vegetarian) Bacon were what was on the menu. I took the ‘smoky’ part too seriously, undoubtedly, though because I ended up burning them pretty badly and filled the whole house with a thick, hazy cloud of smoke. I guess I was used to cooking on my old stove, and this one gets really hot, really fast…

The matcha was delicious though. I think I under leafed it, because it was rather light but on the other hand I don’t know what level flavour this is so maybe it’s just delicate and I’m not used to matcha that light (I normally get distinctive). It was good though! If you’ve ever had a Coffee Crisp which are apparently Canadian, which baffled me when I first heard that it tasted pretty well exactly like that. Mmm!

Sipdown (165/169)!

Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning.

Ok, not really. I woke up at nine: but that was a full two and a half hours earlier than I was expecting to wake up/the alarm was set for – and I felt surprisingly well rested despite going to bed at like 4 AM. Anyway, it gave me extra tea drinking time so I finished this one up in some cold milk while catching up on the new Whose Line episodes.

“What can you say about your house, but not your girlfriend?”

Mmm! The coffee/chocolate was pretty well balanced today and everything whisked up well. I think I’ll miss it, actually. Definitely considering whether I’d want to add it into an order…

I think the next cup of this is a sipdown. Not sure if I should take advantage of that tomorrow morning or try a postpone it. Hmm…

Anyway, I had to get up this morning at 5AM to get ready for work (ick) – it actually wasn’t so bad though because I went to be really early last night. But this was my morning “pick me up”, whisked into cold milk. It frothed so well for me! Really, it was super enjoyable. Although, I think I got a bit more chocolate than coffee.

I’m thinking part of why I love having this in the morning is that the coffee “tricks” my mind into thinking there’s more caffeine than there really is.

And hey, while I’m reviewing a matcha, everyone should go vote for new matcha grade names here:

http://steepster.com/discuss/7378-contest-for-new-matcha-names-50-dollars

And I’m totally not just saying that because two of the top three ideas were mine, and I want the extra matcha money. Like really, I actually voted against myself…

Now that we finally have milk in the house again, I can get back to trying my matcha samples from aisling of tea, and then decide how much of everything I’m willing to send Keychange! Yay!

I chose this one for a first thing in the morning type tea – whisked into cold milk, obviously. It’s good! I’m actually little surprised by how strong the coffee/chocolate flavouring is because I really thought the dry matcha didn’t smell like too much. But this is creamy and rich, and I think something I would MAYBE include in a Red Leaf order if I was getting larger quantities of things (along with Banana & Cream, and Cheesecake – maybe Pineapple/Watermelon).

I wish I had whipped cream; this feels like it should have whipped cream on top, and one of those bright red maraschino cherries. I just spelled maraschino correctly on the first try; I’m very impressed with myself.

This also blended really well, and frothed up for me super nicely! Woot, and also yum!

Made probably my last iced latte with this sample. I’ll probably mix the remainder with one of the flavors I ordered. I bet that would be delicious! I’m so impatiently waiting my matcha order. The USPS tracking keeps saying “pre-shipping.” So hard to wait, especially now that my cheesecake sample is done! I wonder what next month’s sample will be!

New obsession alert! And it won’t even take more room in my cupboard because I’ll keep it in the fridge! Wheeeeeee!

Wow, these monthly samples are quite generous. I think I’ve had 5 iced lattes, and there’s still a bunch more in there! I think I’ll be keeping a lookout each month for the next flavor. :)

Anyhoo, I still think this isn’t quite cheesecake-flavored to me, but it’s got a buttery goodness to it. I went ahead and ordered two matchas and two tins this morning!!! Aaah! The madness! I hope I like them!! I waited a couple of days to see if the deal of the day would end up being one I wanted, but they just have too many flavors, so that was going to take forever, and I want it now! I ordered the caramel and strawberries & cream matchas. So excited!! :D

I took Stephanie’s recommendation and ordered the free sample of the month from Red Leaf Tea. I’ve been curious about these flavored matchas, and wanted to try them before I placed an order. They’re pretty expensive and I didn’t want to end up with a bunch of matcha I didn’t like. I’m also kind of particular about green tea. Some I like, some I don’t, so it’s a bit of a risk! I wasn’t sure how vegetal it would be.

So, I got my sample in the mail yesterday and tried it out immediately. I kept looking at people’s reviews to find out how they prepared it, and for some reason I thought you could just whisk it into some milk. Well, I used my mini kitchen whisk, since I haven’t invested in a matcha one yet, and sifted and then whisked the matcha into some almond milk. Well, that didn’t dissolve very well, no matter how vigorously I whisked. Not great.

Today I tried the recommended method, where you whisk it into hot water, and then add ice a milk. THAT was the trick! Worked out perfectly. Yay! :)

Soooo, the flavor. Well, the dry powder didn’t really smell like cheesecake to me…it was more like a buttery cookie smell. Once made into an iced latte, it still tasted like a butter cookie. It makes me think they mixed up the cheesecake with the French butter cookie flavor. Weird. Still, it tasted good, and I didn’t really get much vegetal or even really a matcha flavor. I wonder at what flavor level these samples come…distinctive? Robust? Anyone know? Overall, I enjoyed it and think it would be a nice upgrade to my usual cup o’milk with breakfast. Now I just have to figure out which ones to buy! I’m thinking about caramel, cookies & cream, or strawberries & cream. :)

Also, anyone know the shelf life of these? I don’t want to order too much and have it go bad quickly.

Made this in my usual vanilla Almond Milk. The flavor is really subtle so I think I may have not added enough to the cup. At any rate its a lovely morning wake up drink. And I’m having fun trying all the flavors sent to me by the gracious MissB in my mystery box. Now that I’m not getting up at 4am for work I should be able to actually document the things I drink again. It was nice to get out early but boy did those mornings hurt.

A scoop of matcha, an overripe banana, a glass of almond milk, a scoop of ice cream, and a tablespoon of chia seeds= super decadent.

Out of the three coffee flavours from Sil I think this one is my favourite, although the mocha was good too. The coffee smoothly creeps into the finish and aftertaste, leaving a vibrant mouthful. I’m looking forward to drinking the two last servings of this.

Well, this is the last flavour from the generous package from Sil. Thank you so much; I never thought I’d get through so many of Red Leaf’s flavours so quickly (maybe a little too quickly). Also a huge thanks to Fjellrev, who organized and distributed everything on this side of the country. I’m extremely grateful.

Backlog:

Prior to tasting this tea I can’t recall having ever tasted Lucuma. It’s sweet and like the description suggests – maple-y. It makes a sweet, creamy matcha.

My specs for this Matcha were classic grade with a distinctive level of favoring. The Lucuma has a very mild flavor to it though, that you could bump this up to robust and I’d probably be satisfied with it.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/02/07/lucuma-flavored-matcha-green-tea-red-leaf-tea/

Yummeh sip down. Thanks again to Sil who so generously passed down a pile of matchas to us West Coasters!

Again, preferred this one cold. Come to think of it, I seem to prefer most of them that way. This one was heavy on the whipped cream especially, almost on the sour side like a yogurt.

I’m having some Tiramisu matcha with Greek yogurt and honey right now. I figured that the tart whipped cream/yogurt note I’m getting from the matcha would blend in with the yogurt, and it does. I also now get more of the chocolate in here. It’s a little artificial but I prefer having the matcha this way than drinking it.

This makes me want to try actual tiramisu again, as I’ve only had it once in my life, a long time ago.

I’ve been neglecting to try all the matcha that the splendid Sil sent so it’s about time I sit down with a matcha latte. The scent of the matcha is hard to describe for me. I pick up on a sour note? Seems like I’m the only one. I couldn’t figure it out for the longest time, but now that I’m actually tasting it, I think it’s the whipped cream flavour in this. It’s like a tart note that some dairy has, I swear. Or maybe even a vanilla yogurt. It’s hard to precisely pin down.

In the flavour, I’m getting mostly this tart whipped cream, followed by chocolate, followed by a very faint coffee. It’s definitely a layered flavour profile but the top two notes are surprisingly overpowering the coffee.

I’m eternally grateful that I was able to try this since it was on my list for my next (who knows when) order. It’s one of those flavours that you find alright but not enough to get 30g of. So that said, thank you muchly, Sil, for the experience! It gives me the idea of making an extravagant matcha latte with whipped cream on top.

I just received French Vanilla Matcha and Madagascar Vanilla Matcha and a generous sample of Cheesecake Matcha from Red Leaf yesterday. The vanilla flavors were both on sale and I thought it would be fun to compare them, since I knew I liked French Vanilla from a previous sample. I’ve lost count of how many flavors of Red Leaf Matcha I’ve tried-I loved all but one. Madagascar Vanilla is the 2nd I’ve tried of their vanilla Matchas and does not disappoint. I’m not sure if I have a favorite between the two. Often I order the robust flavor strength, but with Madagascar, I got distinctive with green basic base, and found it to be just right. I find cold lattes made with Matcha to be a satisfactory (and more healthy) alternative to milkshakes. My recipe for a Madagascar Vanilla latte is ¾ tsp matcha in 10 oz of cold organic milk with some Stevia. I use my Aerolatte to froth it up. I’m sure it would be good with almond milk and intend to try it that way next. On the website, there is usually at least one Matcha on sale, plus the opportunity to get free samples. The service from Red Leaf has been outstanding for me and you can hardly go wrong with any of their flavors. Here is the link for this one: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/madagascar-vanilla-matcha.html

I was nervous to try this as I’m not a big fan of green tea but Courtney swears Matcha is delicious so I decided to give it a try. I blended the suggested scoop with 1 cup of almond milk plus 1 cup of ice… and zomg, it’s delicious! This will be my go-to frozen summer drink. :-) It’s creamy and sweet but not cloyingly sweet which makes it a perfect alternative to the sugar loaded frappes I sometimes crave.

Two matcha lattes today in quick succession, and I’m still tired. Super tasty though. I gulped my first one down in seconds. Hopefully they’ll keep me going for a couple more hours of work before I turn in for the night. Tomorrow is the last full day I have to write my essay, and it’s not anywhere close to being submit-able yet. Down to the wire.